Enhancing Customer Experience with AI

Isaac Gerstenzang, Vice President Digital Marketing & CRM, Atlantis Bahamas, HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board Member 

AI is ubiquitous these days, but a lot of the attention has been focused on content. I am interested in how different companies are using AI to enhance customer experience and use AI to boost their performance and quality. For example, Amazon is constantly improving their delivery routes by utilizing AI based traffic pattern analysis. How can we use AI to build an intelligent experience engine and ultimately enhance the guest experience? I brought these questions to the Marketing Advisory Board for discussion.  

Integrating AI for Enhanced Guest Experience 

We discussed the significance of utilizing AI to bring together various data signals and insights to create a more intelligent and personalized guest experience. There was an emphasis on the need to connect different data points, such as website interactions, email campaign engagements, reservation details, and then to leverage AI to make sense of this data quickly and efficiently to ensure team members can act on the learnings in their respective areas. 

Collaboration and Communication  

Our discussion highlighted the importance of collaboration and communication among different departments to effectively implement AI for guest personalization, both online and offline. We must understand the specific needs and requirements of each department and work together to bring all the different pieces together. We also are leveraging agency partners, vendors, and technical leaders to implement AI solutions. There was a feeling that vendors should include industry leaders in solutions earlier on, so programs don’t have to be retrofitted to how the industry uses the data.  

First-Party Data and Personalization 

Because of the shift towards first-party data and the decreasing reliance on third-party cookies for personalization, we saw the value of gaining more insights on guests through first-party data and utilizing AI to collect, curate, and analyze this data from various touchpoints to a single data stream to help elevate the customer journeys. Using first-party data could enhance personalization efforts and provide a more tailored experience to guests. 

Learn More  

• Customer Experience in the Age of AI (hbr.org) 
• A related webinar from HBR 

Discussion 

1. For hotels, what specific touchpoints in the customer journey can be optimized for personalization?
2. The article mentions impediments to personalization, such as orchestration across channels. How do these challenges apply to the hotel industry, and what strategies can marketers adopt to overcome them? Are there specific examples of hotels successfully navigating these challenges? 
3. How can hotels effectively integrate AI and customer data to improve customer interactions? What lessons can be drawn from companies like Starbucks or Qantas in terms of activating experiences across channels? 
4. How can hotel marketing teams adopt a mindset of continuous testing and experimentation to refine offerings and better understand guest preferences? 
5. What steps can hotel marketing executives take to build an intelligent experience engine for their properties? How might the 70/20/10 rule mentioned in the article be applied in the context of a hotel’s digital transformation, focusing on people, data, and technology?